What’s the reason for targeting Simla Agreement? | Explained-OxBig News Network

Pakistan’s flag missing from the table at Raj Bhawan on which the July 1972 Simla Agreement was signed, in Shimla, Friday, April 25, 2025. Pakistan on Thursday suspended the 1972 Simla Agreement.
| Photo Credit: PTI

The story so far: In response to India’s decision to suspend the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack, Pakistan’s government said it could hold the 1972 Simla Agreement and “all other bilateral agreements with India” in abeyance.

What does the Simla Agreement entail?

The agreement was signed in Shimla on July 2, 1972 after three days of talks between Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, victorious from the 1971 Bangladesh War, and Pakistan Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who had suffered a crushing defeat and the division of Pakistan in the war. The talks, for which the Soviet Union did much of the preparatory discussions through Indian and Pakistani envoys in Moscow, focused on two major issues. First, the future of post-war ties between India and Pakistan, including the return of more than 93,000 Pakistan prisoners of war; second, the resolution of the dispute over Jammu and Kashmir, where they agreed to “settle their differences by peaceful means through bilateral negotiations or by any other peaceful means mutually agreed upon between them”. In addition, the Simla agreement saw the first formal recognition of Bangladesh as a sovereign entity in a bilateral treaty.

What was the reaction in both countries?

The Simla Agreement led to severe criticism of Mrs. Gandhi in India, for not forcing Pakistan to make the ceasefire line the International Border, instead renaming it the Line of Control (LoC); and of Mr. Bhutto in Pakistan for agreeing to resolve the dispute peacefully and without recourse to the United Nations or other third-party mediators. In Srinagar, Sheikh Abdullah’s criticisms stemmed from the fact that neither side had consulted the Kashmiri people.

How has Pakistan violated the pact?

In the years that followed, Pakistan violated the agreement many times, by funding and arming terror groups in Kashmir as well as sending troops across the LoC that led to the Kargil conflict in 1999. It has approached the UN and other countries over the issue, which is a breach of the terms both sides had agreed upon. The Indian Parliament’s declaration in 1994 that all of Kashmir including Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, was an integral part of India, and the 2019 amendment of Article 370, had made the Simla agreement quite irrelevant. Former diplomat Avtar Singh Bhasin, who profiled the agreement in his book, Negotiating India’s Landmark Agreements, says the impact of the announcement will be “minimal or nothing on both sides”. He says that “the Simla Agreement was not meant as a long-standing agreement — and most of it — return of [Pakistani] POWs, restoration of trade, transport, telecommunication linkages were meant to happen immediately after,” and calls the paragraphs on J&K “essentially symbolic”.

What will be the impact?

It should be noted that the statement issued by the Pakistan PMO on April 24 said that “Pakistan shall exercise the right to hold all bilateral agreements with India including but not limited to Simla Agreement in abeyance”, leaving it unclear whether Islamabad had issued any formal notification on the issue. India has not received any letter from Pakistan on the matter. The immediate impact would be seen in terms of its meaning for the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, and whether Pakistan will now also disavow the LoC that was first named in the Simla accord. Analysts suggest that if Pakistan attempts to cross it, India could also then disregard the LoC and launch operations to claim parts of Pakistan occupied Kashmir.

What are the ‘other agreements’ that Pakistan referred to that could be affected?

While Pakistan did not name any other agreement by name, the Shehbaz Sharif government’s reference to “all other” bilateral agreements could refer to a number of different accords the two countries have signed over the years after being in armed conflict several times from the first Kashmir war in 1948 to Kargil in 1999. The Nehru-Liaquat pact signed in 1950 relates to the treatment of minorities in their respective countries. The Bilateral Protocol on Visits to Religious Pilgrimages signed in 1974 facilitates hundreds of Hindu and Sikh pilgrims to 15 temples and gurdwaras in Pakistan, as well as Muslim pilgrims to five mosques and shrines in India. For the moment, both sides have indicated that the Kartarpur corridor agreement in 2019 between the Narendra Modi and Imran Khan governments will remain in place.

Other agreements, that relate to confidence-building measures and information sharing could also be affected. In 1988, India and Pakistan signed an agreement to inform each other of their nuclear installations and facilities every year on January 1. In 1991, they signed an agreement for the pre-notification of flight testing of all ballistic missiles, as well as an agreement on preventing airspace violations. Since February 2021, India and Pakistan have a ceasefire agreement in place, that was first agreed to in 2003. Any military operation by India on terror camps or other locations in Pakistan, to which Pakistan has threatened to retaliate, could see the ceasefire agreement collapse. In addition, India’s decision to suspend the Indus Waters treaty could also have a follow-on effect, with Pakistan threatening to take India to international courts and calling the stoppage of any water an “act of war”. While India is an upper riparian state to Pakistan and Bangladesh, it is also a lower riparian state to China, that has on occasion withheld cooperation with India on the Brahmaputra and other rivers. All three neighbouring countries will follow India’s actions on the Indus closely.